Dhaka:Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate (CIID) has successfully seized smuggled goods valued at approximately Tk 1.13 crore during multiple operations at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport and the Kamalapur Railway Foreign Post Office on October 13 and 14.
According to Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) agency confiscated goods worth Tk 1,13,40,100. The operations revealed a suspected smuggling route that utilized air transport, postal sorting centers, and railways.
On October 14, customs officials intercepted 55.8 kilograms of medicines, including Viagra and insulin, from a passenger named Jahangir on Ethiopian Airlines flight ET680. In another operation on October 13, they seized 7,787 pieces of prohibited Gouri cream and 31 used laptops at the Kamalapur Railway Station's Foreign Post Office.
The seized goods reportedly arrived by air and were being routed through the airport's sorting center and the Railway Mail Service (RMS) Centre at Kamalapur to the Chattogram General Post Office (GPO). This finding emphasizes the need for coordinated customs surveillance across different transport networks.
Further inspections on October 13 led to the seizure of 100 grams of gold ornaments, laptops, mobile phones, cigarettes, prohibited creams, and alcoholic beverages. Subsequent operations on October 14 involving various flights and abandoned items resulted in the recovery of additional smuggled goods.
Over the two-day operation, CIID confiscated a total of 531 cartons of foreign cigarettes, 7,787 pieces of Gouri cream, 64.18 kilograms of skin-whitening creams at the airport, 68 kilograms of other cosmetics, 55.8 kilograms of medicines, 100 grams of gold ornaments, 32 laptops, three mobile phones, and 17 liters of alcoholic beverages.